De la etimología antigua a la actual

Abstract

With the purpose of understanding the sense of The Etymologies by Saint Isidorus, an approach is made to etymology in Plato, in Varro, the evolution of it to rhetorical topoi in Quintilianus and Cicero. The Isidorian etymological theory is analyzed in this light. This is a starting point for the research on the various ways of approaching etymology. Also here is the search for possible Hebrew antecedents, the concept of root in historical comparative grammar, which is the greatness and misery of this analysis, and lastly today’s state of the art.